A wild jubilation reverberated around all the local government areas in Kogi State as the workers hailed the state government for commencing the payment of 85 per cent of their salaries.
The local government pensioners were not left out of the payment scheme as they received 100 per cent of their monies, the first in the last 16 years.
Arewa PUNCH findings indicated that the payment might not be unconnected with the recent improvement in the allocation from the federation account in recent times.
Percentage salaries payment started in 2011 when the state complained of paucity of funds as well as over bloated workforce.
Arewa PUNCH recalls that President Bola Tinubu had last month shortly after the Federal Allocation Committee meeting directed state governments across the country to commence payment of the backlog of workers’ salaries and pensions to reduce the hardship currently being faced in the country.
Some of the local government workers who spoke with our correspondent expressed delight at the news but were quick to add that the tempo be sustained.
“I only hope that Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo will be magnanimous enough to sustain the tempo of the payment and possibly increase it to 100 per cent. The hardship is just too much,” stated Salome Anka.
Also, the Chairman of the Kogi State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Engineer Clement Ohida, thanked Gov. Ododo for restoring the payment of 100 per cent pension to pensioners at the local government level.
Ohida, who spoke with newsmen on Monday in Lokoja, said the Union expresses its deepest gratitude to the state governor for listening to the plea of pensioners at the local government level.
“We thank Gov. Ododo for bringing us to this level of payment of 100 per cent pension after several years. By this feat, he has proven to be pensioners friendly, and we are not taking it for granted.
“We equally want to appreciate the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Barr. Deedat Ozigi Salami for his effort while working with Gov. Ododo towards ensuring that our cries and tears of several years are addressed,” Ohida stressed.
Continuing, he maintained, “The Union has been agitating for this level of payment for quite some time, and we are pleased that it has been effected through the April payment of pension by Gov. Ododo.
“With this development, the pensioners cannot do otherwise but to appreciate the governor for his kind gesture and wish him all the success while piloting the affairs of the state.
“We can not hide our joy. The administration is pensioners friendly. The administration has proven that the sad narratives faced by pensioners in the past have become a thing of the past.”
While further hailing the governor, Ohida added, “We also want to appreciate Gov. Ododo for the appointment of one of our own, Comr. Onuh Edoka as the Special Adviser on Labour Matters.
“Comr. Onuh Edoka is a Labour Chairman Emeritus, and his appointment is in the right direction.
“Gov. Ododo has thus far really shown that he is the peoples’ governor, and he has shown that he is a labour friendly governor by all his actions and policies.’’
“We believe that the governor is working and Kogi State is working. We as a union will continue to partner with the government and believe that other issues we have presented before the government in the time past will be addressed and actualised in the shortest possible time.
“We look forward to the present administration addressing the issues of harmonisation and gratuity of pension for the local governments.”
The NUP Chairman called on members to continue to pray and support the administration of Gov Ododo, pointing out that he means well for the state, particularly the workers and pensioners at the council level.
Also speaking on the development, the President of the Kogi State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employee, Tade Adeyemi told Arewa PUNCH in his office on Monday in Lokoja that the union fully supports and appreciates Ododo’s gesture
Source | Punchng
